【ノート】
・ Hello, everybody. My name is Yasuyoshi Karasawa, and I am the President and CEO of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings.
・ Thank you for attending our Information Meeting today.
・ Yesterday the election of members of the House of Representatives was announced. The recovery in personal spending, which declined after the consumption tax hike, is tardier than expected, and another consumption tax hike that was planned in October next year has been postponed. Moody's downgrades Japan's debt rating the day before yesterday. Uncertainty over business confidence has increased.
・ In spite of this environment, our results in the first half were very good. Earnings in our domestic voluntary automobile insurance business improved more than our projection. The loss caused by natural catastrophes was within the range of expectations. Based on the results, we have revised our full-year results forecast upward.
・ Today I will be describing the progress of Next Challenge 2017, which we are putting into action starting this fiscal year. Before that, since this is the first Information Meeting since I became president, I would like to describe our basic management stance.